Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video’s summer breakout “Off Campus” closes its first season with a major curveball. While the show’s central drama continues to unfold, its secondary couple — Dean Di Laurentis (Stephen Kalyn) and Allie Hayes (Mika Abdalla) — lands in fresh chaos after their shared decision to see other people takes an unexpected turn. The complication? Allie’s hookup is Hunter Davenport (Charlie Evans), someone with a tense and hostile history with Dean.
Fans of Elle Kennedy’s novels may have been surprised to see Hunter appear in the finale, since he does not factor into “The Deal,” the book that serves as the basis for Season 1. Speaking with Deadline, “Off Campus” creator and co-showrunner Louisa Levy opened up about why the series brought him in. Levy said Hunter’s arrival was designed to create an external pressure point for Allie and Dean’s already combustible relationship, while also teasing that Season 2 could expand on the setup.
“So, yeah, [Hunter] came up,” Levy said. “It’s a little different than the books. We wanted to find ways to externalize the internal and keep the stories going, but it was a fun way to play with that character, and it still does honor, you know, his backstory. And there are some things coming up Season 2 that [sic] all I’ll tease, but not reveal anything, because there’s a ways to go before we get to it.”
Hunter Davenport is a character from the Briar U spin-off series
Prime Video
Hunter Davenport’s reveal works as a layered twist. Initially, he hides behind a fake identity, introducing himself as Carter St. James, which makes the discovery of both his real name and his connection to Allie hit harder. The surprise is especially notable because Hunter is not part of the main “Off Campus” storyline at this stage. Instead, he becomes prominent later in Kennedy’s spin-off series “Briar U,” where he is the lead character in “The Play.” In the Deadline interview, Levy explained why the creative team chose to pull him into the show now.
“He has a book in the ‘Briar U’ series, and we mostly just wanted to tap on the fact that we have more than just four books, and we want to play with a whole universe of Elle Kennedy characters, and we intend to,” Levy said. “And they might show up in ways that you don’t expect, especially ones that have more story down the line.”
Based on Levy’s comments, the Prime Video adaptation appears ready to draw from Kennedy’s wider catalog while still keeping the original “Off Campus” books at its core. That means Hunter Davenport may be only the first of several unexpected crossover-style appearances. For a series built on romance, rivalry, and shifting loyalties, it is a smart way to keep longtime readers guessing while giving new viewers another reason to stay hooked.
“Off Campus” Season 1 is now streaming on Prime Video.
